Mika Akino beat Lady Metal in a clipped match with an armbar. Nothing to see here as they just showed some flips and sped through the rest. The crowd does not seem super thrilled which isn't a good sign. Esther Moreno was probably the highlight here and looked like a really good face.

They did a quick interview after.

THE SECOND ARSION Women's Brazilian Jui Jitsu: Aikyo Sato vs. SAYA
Ugh. Never been a fan of doing non-wrestling stuff on a wrestling show unless it is building to something.

They only showed seconds of this. Thank God. Looked like it was a shoot.

GAMI/Futagami got the win in 7:41 with a heel hook. Odd match. I don't buy that this was full shoot. Her opponent looked confused and really wasnt nailing her that hard. The opponent also seemed really confused and GAMI wasn't that bad, but was really not polished as a fighter. I think they clipped it and thank god.

THE FOURTH ARSION Women's Kickboxing: Aya Mitsui vs. Natsumi Nakazawa

Mitsui in Purple, Nakazawa in Blue

Round 1 - Pretty even so far. They threw so many fast strikes it was hard to see anyone having the advantage, but Nakazawa's takedown got her the round for me. 10-9.

Mitsui gets the knockdown

Round 2 - Again, pretty much non-stop striking here. Nakazawa seemed to be a bit off after her knockdown and def lost the round due to that. Both girls are starting to look tired.

Mitsui gets the knockout on Nakazawa

Aya Mitsui beat Natsumi Nakazawa with a left hook in the 3rd round. Mitsui took complete control in the 3rd round. Nakazawa couldn't handle the side kicks and looked to be in major pain after. Nakazawa took about 3-4 in a row pretty much finishing her off. Not bad at all for kickboxing and they kept going the whole time.

Rie Tamada pinned Michiko Omukai with a dragon suplex at 12:17. Good match. The highlight of this match was Tamada dropkicking Fukawa so hard that she kicked herself in the head. Sheesh. There were a few rough parts here and the crowd may have well not even been there, but the work was really good. Fukawa had awesome combos and submissions all match and Yagi/Tamada brought tons of good stiff moves. This is the first time I've seen Tamada/Yagi together and they may be one of my new favorite tag teams. Rating:***3/4

Rojina Elina beat Reggie Bennett with a keylock with the ref saying Reggie tapped and Reggie fighting that she didn't. Reggie had no business here anyway and had no prayer. Why would you put one of your wrestlers up against a legit judoka in a shoot match? Rojina got a few takedowns and had no problem here. The whole idea of this was just retarded as nothing was going to be gained. Reggie was already seen as strong or whatever they were going for before the match started.

THE SEVENTH ARSION ARSION War Dream: Aja Kong vs. Ayako Hamada

Aja Kong beat Ayako Hamada with the uraken at 13:32. Disappointing match. Aja pretty much sold nothing early. Hamada only did weak offense and did at least 5 moonsaults in 10 minutes. While she is one of the most graceful flyers, it was too much and it didn't look good against Aja. We're used to seeing Aja get stiffed and spiked on her head without going down, but yet a moonsault is supposed to finish her? Not much else going on here. It was hard to buy Ayako would win this at any time and she didn't. I give her credit though, she looked absolutely amazing for basically being in her first year and the next time someone wants to tell me Nia Jax just needs more time, I'm going to show them this. One of the best rookies ever. The crowd also junk as they've been all show. Rating:***

THE FINAL ARSION Shodai QUEEN OF ARSION Title: Mariko Yoshida vs. Candy
OkutsuThey showed Candy winning ARS '98 to build up to this and Yoshida winning the QOA title/ZION '98 Tournament as well. Nothing special, but it works.

Mariko Yoshida

Candy Okutsu

Funny story, in the packages leading up to this, they used the same generic cut music that Sports Illustrated used for the Year in Review 1993 tape. Legit that was the best sports highlight tape ever and I still watch it to this day.

What do you even call this? Leg keylock?

Now THAT'S a figure four.

Candy takes Mariko to SUPLEX CITY

The finish

Mariko Yoshida beat Candy Okutsu with the Spider Twist. Strong match. Yoshida did so many awesome submissions and looked like the best submission wrestler ever with this display. I posted gifs of all the cool stuff she did here and what more can you really say. She wrestled like a wrestler should. Candy was good here. Loved seeing her take Mariko to Suplex City and her powerbomb on Yoshida was just disgusting. The work was very good but again, the crowd was just so bad. There had to be a mic issue or something. There's no other explanation. I really recommend this match and think it shows a realistic side to wrestling that has unfortunately passed us by. Rating:****1/4

Overall thoughts: The crowd/micing was atrocious and it destroyed the whole show. The non-wrestling stuff was also just a stupid idea in 1998. The women's kickboxing match was the best part of it, but it added nothing. The shoot matches only hurt the wrestlers in it, including Gami who actually won her match. The actual wrestling was the best part of the show non-surprisingly and I would have liked to have seen what the show could have been if they focused on it. The girls were all extremely good here and were able to combine beauty with technique. Yoshida looked like the best wrestler in the world and Yagi/Tamada are one of my favorite tag teams already despite never having seen them before. In all though, I don't recommend this show. The crowd and non-wrestling stuff just killed it.